Posthuman Childhoods|S1|From the Human Child to the Posthuman Childhood|Literature

This online Faculty Development Program investigates how
contemporary children’s literature reimagines childhood through posthuman
perspectives, moving beyond traditional humanist frames. Under the theme “Posthuman Childhoods in Contemporary Children’s Literature: Sentient Toys and Algorithmic Friends” the program charts the journey from Enlightenment ideals of the child as natural, innocent, and protected (Rousseau, Ariès, Dickens, Barrie) to 21st-century narratives where children are deeply enmeshed with machines, toys, algorithms, and digital networks.Engaging with the works of key thinkers—Hayles on information and embodiment, Braidotti on relational subjectivity, Haraway on the cyborg, Ahmed and Tomkins on affect, Brown on thing theory, Turkle on AI companionship, Foucault and Williamson on surveillance, Barad on intraaction, and Rose on the cultural construction of childhood—participants will critically analyze
texts such as Émile, Oliver Twist, Peter Pan, Aldiss/Spielberg’s A.I., DiCamillo’s Edward Tulane, Pixar’s Toy Story, Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, and Anderson’s Feed.Through lectures, discussions, and close readings, the FDP equips participants to interrogate how sentient toys, AI caregivers, and digital childhoods transform concepts of empathy, agency, identity, and ethics, while also inspiring innovative research and pedagogy for the future of childhood studies.
1. Trace the historical evolution of childhood in literature, moving from Enlightenment constructions of innocence to posthuman notions of hybridity.
Resource Person: Dr. Vyomakesisri T., Associate Professor (English), Stanley College of Engineering and Technology for Women, Hyderabad, Telangana